Weekly Photo Challenge : Hue

A few weeks ago, I posted some shots relating to an early start to the bushfire season around Sydney.

Thursday, 17th October was a truly awful day. Very strong winds gusting to over 80 km/hr, together with temperatures over 35°C, made this one of the worst days for bushfires in many years. Over two hundred homes have been lost in the Blue Mountains alone. As I write this, many fires are still burning, although a couple of cooler days have enabled the fire-fighters to regain some control.

While the worst fires were some 50 km west of Sydney, the prevailing winds ensured that the city was blanketed in smoke all afternoon, casting a somewhat eerie orange light.

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The photos of the sun (above) were taken at 4:55 pm daylight time, more than two hours before sunset. How appropriate for this week’s challenge!

Half an hour later, the gardens were still bathed in this all too familiar hue.

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Weekly Photo Challenge : Saturation

My first inspiration for this challenge was to find saturated colour in nature.
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Yellow rose

Then I remembered an amazing, dust storm, quite unusual for Sydney. The air appeared to be saturated with red dust when we awoke one September morning in 2009.

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Naturally this led my thoughts to a decent thunderstorm, when everything is saturated within minutes – literally!

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Bushfires : Early Summer

We are only in the first month of spring. Yesterday, after a long dry winter spell, we experienced temperatures over 30C and strong north westerly winds. Some parts of outer Sydney suffered several bushfires. One or two homes were lost and a few injuries incurred. It suggests we may be in for a long danger period this coming summer, especially for those living near ‘the bush’.

While the fires were well to the west of us, the smoke added ‘heat’ to the setting sun.

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I wish I could claim credit for catching the bird in full flight!